Jo Johnson is 21 years old and a student at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. He is a co-author of four published science papers in the Journal of Double Star Observations (www.jdso.org), two articles in Amateur Astronomy and a member of the Fall 2007 Physics Research Seminar at Cuesta College. Jo also wrote and presented a paper for the 2008 Society for Astronomical Sciences Symposium. He is co-editing a book with Dr. Russ Genet and Dr. Vera Wallen called Galileo's Legacy: Small Telescopes and Astronomical Research.

Jo has also made two mountain top observing runs in 2008. He was invited by Dr. Brian Mason of the US Naval Observatory to do speckle interferometry of very close visual double stars on the 4-mater Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observ-atory in Arizona. Jo also used the 24" Boller and Chivens  telescope at Pine Mountain Observatory for a week of observing transits of the exoplanet HD 189733b and double stars.

Jo co-chaired the 2008 Small Telescopes and Astronomical Research (STAR) Conference (www.STARConference.org), in San Luis Obispo, June 18-22 and is the Conference Coordinator for "Galileo's Legacy: A celebration of small tele-scopes and astronomical research four centuries later" at the Makaha Resort in Waianae, Oahu, Hawaii, December 31, 2008 - January 5, 2009 (www.GalileosLegacy.org).

Jo is now a research advisor for Fall 2008 Physics Research Seminar at Cuesta College and is currently researching transiting exoplanets, visual double stars, and tumbling asteroids.